Delphia



Jan. 2,'1923, Re. 15,517

G. P. MALLORY.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER SPOONS vmt: OTHER FLM' PAPER UTENSILS.

v ORIGINAL FILED UcT. 1B. 192] mmmimm U '1 1 5/ 24 it 3 YINVEINTU-I/I ymag lwwl fl Reissued Jan. 2, 1923.

UNITED STATES Re. 15,517 PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE PRICE MALIIORY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLV'ANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO SANITARY PRODUCTS CORPORATION OF AMERICA, OF PHILA- DELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER SPOONS AND OTHER FLAT PAPER UTENSILS.

Original No. 1,394,037, dated October 18, 1921, Serial No. 326,599, filed September-26, 1919. Application 7 for reissue filed March 6, 1922. Serial No. 541,585. 7

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, GEORGE P. MALL'onY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State .5 of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Making Paper Spoons and Other Flat Paper Utensils, of which the. following is a specification, reference being had there-in to the accompanying drawings.

It has been common heretofore to make cheap spoons, that are intended to be used but once, out of vulcanized fibre. Spoons of this character have been formed by dieing out a blank from a sheet of fibre and stamping it to the proper shape. In such case, there has been a great Waste of material, usually about 33% per cent, which has been burned because there appeared to be no economical use for it. This has been a dead loss, and

owing to the high cost of the raw material, it has constituted a great financial waste. The object of the present invention is to provide a method ofand apparatus for making spoons and other articles of flat ware type out of wood pulp paper in such manner that the waste can be redeemed and the article itself shall be hardeiystronger and cheaper than those heretofore produced from vulcanized fibre. The invention consists sub stantially in passing a plurality of laminae of wood pulp paper through a tank containing a solution forming a plastic filler, then running the laminaev superposed one upon the other through a series of suitable rolls to leave the proper amount of filler in the laminae, then calendering the laminated sheet and stamping or embossingthe design of ,spoon or other article-in the sheet, then passing the sheet to a press which blanks outthe (article from the embossed sheet.

The invention is more particularly intended to be employed in the manufacture of fibre spoons, and for that reason the drawings show a spoon design. For convenience of description, the word spoons will he sometimes employed in the specification, but wherever so used, it is to be understood that it covers any utensil or other article of the flatware type capable of being made by the machine if the proper dies are substituted.

The invention will be fully understood. from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the novel features thereof will be pointed out and clearly defined in the claims at the close of this specification.

In the drawings, Fig'. 1 is a side elevation partly in section of a machine embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan' view partly in section: of the machine embodying the invention shown in Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings, 1 is a stand on which are mounted a plurality of reels 2, 2, 2, which carry rolls of thin aper. In the drawings, three of such rol s are shown,.but the number may be more or less according to the number of laminae or thickness desired for the;blank sheet from which 'the spoons are to be formed. Preferably,

the sheets are of a width amply sufficient to allow for the length of a spoon cut transversely-of the sheet.

A tank 3 is provided adjacent the stand on which the rolls of paper are mounted, said tank containing a plastic solution 33. A rack 4: containing guide rods 5 which serve as spacing rods is pivo-tally mounted in the tank. In the form of device shown, the rack is provided with arms 6 which are pivoted at 7 within the tank. The said rolls 5 are spaced apart from each other and are sufficient in number so that the laminae of paper from the several rolls will each pass separately under its individual guide rod.

Said rods thereby guide the laminae through the solution in the tank and maintain them separated from each other so that both faces of each of the laminae will more readily absorb the solution. v

The rack is pivoted inside of the tank so that it can be lifted out of the solution to allow threading the paper through the machine, and it is also provided with lock bolts 9 to hold it down in place when tension 1s put on the rolls of paper in feedmg them through the machine. The rolls of paper are providedwith friction clamps 32 to give the right amount of tension.

Near the upper edge of the tank on the side opposite ,that on which the reel stand is located are a pair of doctor rolls 10, 10 between which the several laminae of paper ass as they leave the tank. In passing Between the doctor rolls, the laminae Wlll be in contact with each other, superposed one upon the'other. The doctor rolls are ad leave the proper justable to give the right pressure so asto amount of the plastic solution in the paper.

, After leaving the doctor rolls, the superposed laminae .pass between two calender rolls 11, 11 mounted on a suitable support 12, to give the proper finish to the compound sheet formed of the several laminae and thence it passes between two rotary embossing rolls 13, 14. The upper embossing roll 13 is provided with at least one embossing die 15 on its periphery, and the embossing roll 14 is provided with atleast one embossing die 16 on its periphery so locatedas to cooperate with the embossing die 15, one of said dies being a male die and the other a female die, so that when the sheet passes between the said embossing members, the de sired form of spoon will be embossed in the sheet to give'the proper shape to the bowl and shank and handle. Preferably, the dies are heated "by any suitable means. One method is to pass steam through the hollow shafts 20 and 27 on which the rolls 13 and 14 are mounted. The peripheries of these embossing dies are curved on an arc of a circle concentric with the rolls 13, 14 on which they are mounted. Preferably, each embossing die is made with duplicate patterns so that each pair of male and female dies will emboss two spoons at each action;

In order to leave as little waste as possible,

it is preferable to form the two patterns on each die parallel with each other, and with the bowls pointing in opposite directions, as will be seen in Figure 2. Preferably, there are two embossing dies mounted on each embossing roll, one being diametrically opposite the other so that at each complete rotation of the roll, two sets of the embossing dies will successively come into operation,

thus giving a greater capacity of production.

Each embossing die from front to rear extends less than one-half the circumference of the embossing roll, that is, the two embossing dies on a single roll do not meet each other, so that there is always a partial rotation of the embossing rolls 13, 14 after one set of embossing dies 15, 16 rotates out of contact with the sheet before the opposite set of embossing dies comes in contact with the sheet. As the embossing dies constitute the sheet feed, there will thus be an intermittent movement of the sheet although the rolls rotate continuously, the dwell of the sheet continulng from the time one set of embossing dies passes out of engagement with the sheet until the next set of embossing dies comes into engagement with the sheet to continue the feed. There will thus be two spoons embossed at a time by each pair of dies, and four'sp'oons at each com-.

plete rotation of the roll, with a dwell of the Zheet between the action of the two sets of ms.

7 After passing the sheet is guided between the two blanking out members 17, 18 of a press.

he pressis a power press, the upper die 17 being movable vertically and driven by a suitable drivlng connection between the shaft 20 on which the upper embossing roll between the embossing-dies,

13 is mounted and the shaft 21 which ac-I" tuates the plunger 22which carries the upper blanking die 17.- Thedriving connection shown consists of a chain 19 which runs over a sprocket 23 on the shaft 20 and over a sprocket 24 on the shaft21. Mounted on shaft 20 is a spiral gear 25 which meshes with a spiral ear 26 on a shaft. 27 of the embossing roll 14, said" shaft 27 having mounted thereon a driven by any suitable means. v I

The shaft 21 is connected with suitable mechanism whereby the plunger 22,.' and" therefore the movable blanking die 17, is vertically reciprocated in the well known manner of operating power presses. It is not deemed necessary to show the details of construction. .It is timed in such manner that the latter part of the downward stroke of the blanking member 17 will take place during the dwell in the process of. feeding the sheet and will be lifted from the sheet before the forward feed ag'ain begins;

driving pulley which is In Figure 2, a series of spoon embossings j 29 is shown as they-,appear embossed in the strip after passing between the embossing rolls before the blanks are cut fromthe sheet. The spoon blanks are then cut out bythe blanking dies l'f and 18. The spoons drop down through the dies into a suitable receptacle 30. The openings 31 in the sheet show where the spoons have been died out.

The plastic solution is simply a bonding material for cementing the laminae of paper together, and by giving the embossing rolls the proper degree of heat, the bonded paper becomes hard. The degree of heat, however,- is not suflieient to destroy the fibre of the paper, and the scrap can be returned to the paper mill, put through the heaters, and used over again.

\Vhileobvio-usly adapted for the purpose of making othersmall irregularly shaped articles from paper or similar sheet material, the process. and apparatus herein described have, as above pointed out, been devised primarily for the manufacture of.

spoons, forks, and similar utensils known in the tradeas flat tableware. The term flat as herein used is, therefore, employed in this particular or technical sense andis not intended to imply that the severalparts of the object in. question :allf'lie. within or closely adjacent to a single plane. On the contrary, the articles formed are 'not only viewed in plan, but are also, as to their-sevmore or less irregular in outline, when tion or another from a given plane, so as to present a contour or profile which is also more or less irregular in a direction or dimension transverse to the plane or other surface in which the outline lies. The term form as used in the claims is intended to refer to this contour of the article within its outline and with respect to theplane or surface in which said outline is included. -What I claim is 1.'An apparatus for forming paper spoons or other articles, having apair of cooperating rotary embossing rolls between which a sheet of material from which the articles are to be formed is fed, each roll having on its periphery an embossing die, said dies extending only partially around the circumference of the roll and being raised above the surfaces of the roll so that there-is a space between the two ends of the die which does not engage with the sheet, thereby. causing a dwell in the movement of the sheet between the time that the last engaging portion of the die passes out of engagement with the sheet and the, time when the first engaging portion ofthe die again comes in contact with the sheet, in combination with a pair of cutting dies'between which the sheet is fed from the embossing rolls, said cutting dies being shaped to a contour to cut out the embossed blank from the sheet, and means-for driving the embossing dies and the cutting dies in such timed relation to each other that the cutting dies will be operated during the dwell in the travel of the sheet occasioned by the blank spaces between the'two ends of the embossing dies.

2. An apparatus for forming paper spoons or other articles, having a pair of cooperating rotary embossing rolls between which a sheet of material from which-the articles are to be formed'is fed, each roll having'on its periphery an embossing die, one of said dies being a male die and the other a female die, the periphery of each diebeing curved'on the arcofa circle con- I centric with the roll on which it is mounted,

the said two dies being so disposed on the peripheries of their respective rolls that at each rotation of the rolls the sheet which is being fed through will be engaged by both of said dies, thereby embossing and feeding the sheet, said dies extending only partially around the circumference of the roll and being raised above the surfaces of theroll so that there, is a space between the two ends of the die which does not engage with the sheet, thereby causing a dwell in the movement of the last engaging portion of the die passes out of engagement with the sheet and the time when the first engaging portion of the die again comes in contact with the sheet, in combination with a pair of cutting dies besheet between the time that thetween which the sheet is fed from the embossing rolls, said cutting dies being shaped to a contourto cut out the embossed blank from the sheet, and means for driving the embossing dies and the cutting dies in such timed relations to each other'that the cutting dies will be operated during the dwell 1 in the travel of the sheet occasioned by the blank spaces between the two ends of the embossing dies.

3. An apparatus for making paper utensils which comprises embossing dies to impress upon the Stock the shape and outline of the article to be formed, and cutting dies which sever the article from the stock along the outline so formed, said apparatus in-. cluding provision for feeding the stock from the embossing dies to the cutting dies.

4. An apparatus for'making paper uten- 1 sils which comprises embossing dies to impress upon a sheet of material successive 1mpressions having the form and outline of the finished article, cutting dies of the same size and shape to sever the outline already em-- bossed thereon, and meansfor actuating said dies tocause the same to operate upon the sheet successively, said apparatus having provision for'feeding the sheet from the embossing dies: to said cutting dies.

5. An apparatus for forming paper utensils comprising a pair of continuously rotating embossing rolls provided with dies which extend only partially around said rolls'and by means of which rolls the stock is fed forward intermittently, and which dies impress the stock into the formand outline of the finished article, combined with blanking or cutting dies which sever the article at the outline formed by the embossing dies, while the stock is at rest between feeding ,movements, and eject the finished article fro-m the stock.

6. An apparatus for forming articles having anon-flat surface out of a strip of fiat sheet material, comprising embossing dies which emboss in a portion of the strip the shape of the finished article, a cutting die having'a cutting edge whose contour corresponds with the outer contour of the shaped article, means whereby the cutting die is actuated to sever the shaped article from the strip, and means whereby the embossing dies feed the embossed portion of the strip to position for being acted upon by the cutting 7. An apparatus for forming articles hav-' ing a non-fiat surface out of a strip of flat sheet material, comprising embossing dies I which emboss in a portion of the strip the shape of the finished article, a cutting die having a cutting edge whose contour corresponds with the outer contour of the shaped article, means whereby the cutting die is actuated to sever the shaped article from the strip, and means whereby the embossing dies the cutting die.

intermittingly feed the embossedportion of the strip to position for being acted upon by dies having a cutting edge whose contourcorresponds with the outline of the finished article.

, 9. An apparatus for forming articles out ofa strip of sheet material, comprising a pair of rotary embossing dies between which the strip is'fed and which impress upon a portion of the. strip the shape of the article to be formed, and a air of rotaryeutting dies between which t e strip is fed bythe embossing dies in such a manner as to posi-' tion the embossed portion of the strip in proper relation to the cutting dies, one of said cut-ting dies havin a cutting edge whose contour correspon s with the outline of the finished article. c

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

GEORGE PRICE MALLoR 

